Open bars were a tradition at Polish funerals in Chicago.

 

The way it worked was wake/Mass/graveside service/reception w. open bar (reception is a dinner).  I guess they dont call them wakes anymore ("viewing" is the modern term).

 

 

..on  a lighter note, I like those cookie tables.

Open bars were a tradition at Polish funerals in Chicago.

 

The way it worked was wake/Mass/graveside service/reception w. open bar (reception is a dinner).  I guess they dont call them wakes anymore ("viewing" is the modern term).

 

I've attended wakes in recent years, mostly in small towns. There, I think the Catholics call it a wake, and it includes a rosary service. Stuffy German/Swiss protestants call it a viewing, and it includes a bunch of people standing around in suits and looking uncomfortable and saying awkward things like, "Oh, she looks so nice."

 

Again, the protestant version among the German/Swiss folks who raised me has a sit-down dinner in the church basement after the graveside services, and don't you even think of mentioning alcohol. Respectable people keep their whiskey hidden in the garage.

This has turned into a very interesting discussion. Thanks for sharing about the food cultures in Ohio. What's interesting to me is how many of these are considered both 'European' and 'Ohio'. How do you think most people understand the cookie tables, etc: as an older European tradition celebrated in the US, or has it become a 'Youngstown' or 'Ohio' practice?

I think it nearly always is considered an 'ethnic' practice rather than a truly Ohio one. The food culture have clearly been variations of Italian, Polish(generally Slavic), Greek, and German traditions. I guess the 'Ohio-ness' of it would be ways in which they have been mixed and repurposed.

An Ohio culture?  Probably family.  It seems everyone from Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, and all of Florida is either from Ohio and/or still has family there. 

The way it worked was wake/Mass/graveside service/reception w. open bar (reception is a dinner).  I guess they dont call them wakes anymore ("viewing" is the modern term).

I say: "calling hours";  "viewing" does not capture the moment of condolences.

^I get ticked when people say they're going to a "wake" when they mean 'calling hours'. Sorry, but if drinks aren't available and everyone's standing around quietly - it ain't a d@mn wake!

When I was a kid, even into my teens, sometimes calling was at the family home, with the casket set up there. In the family home or at a funeral home, calling typically was two full days and prior to the funeral service on the third day. On the two full days, it started in the morning and ran into the evening, with breaks for meals.

 

It was pretty exhausting for the family; I still remember how wiped out everyone was after my grandmother's funeral, and that was in 1960.

All the weddings I went to as a kid in Eastern Ohio (near Wheeling) had large cookie tables.  I haven't been to a wedding in a really long time, and I kind of assumed that all receptions had the cookie table.  Then again, at these weddings there was ALWAYS at least one Polka played...

^A big part of Ohio culture is producing kids to leave Ohio.

Is it primarily economics that keeps people from moving? How do people see Ohio as 'their home' in ways that might keep them from greener (or warmer) pastures?

 

It's primarily families and jobs that keep people here who would like to leave, but can't.  Someone's mom/dad or both live here and they don't want to leave, their sibling(s) live here and they don't want to leave them or one or both spouses have a job that they don't want to give up to move somewhere else.  The parent thing particularly comes into play, I'm learning, because for many people it offers them free childcare.  I cannot tell you how invaluable a resource this is and I can see why it would cause someone to stay.  We have it CHEAP here compared to other metro areas and it is still $250-300 a WEEK for full-time, newborn infant care at a day care, vs. free if your parent is willing to take it on.

^ Agreed, that's probably #1.

All the weddings I went to as a kid in Eastern Ohio (near Wheeling) had large cookie tables. I haven't been to a wedding in a really long time, and I kind of assumed that all receptions had the cookie table. Then again, at these weddings there was ALWAYS at least one Polka played...

 

That's funny.  I'm marrying a lovely girl in June from St. Clairsville, OH (Near Wheeling) and the wedding is going to have a cookie table (something i've never heard of) and we are having a Polka Band from Pittsburgh along with a DJ.

I basically agree with what has been said: Ohio doesn't have much of a unified culture, but our regions each have distinct cultures.

 

As far as food, in Cleveland, Polish Boys are big in soul food and seafood joints in the area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_boy.  I don't even eat meat much anymore...but those things are sooo good. Also, there are certain words that I've only heard black Clevelanders use like grotta (I just Googled it for the heck of it and it is a "Cleveland" word:http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Grotta. Let me stress that grotta and wedgies ARE different, lol.

All the weddings I went to as a kid in Eastern Ohio (near Wheeling) had large cookie tables. I haven't been to a wedding in a really long time, and I kind of assumed that all receptions had the cookie table. Then again, at these weddings there was ALWAYS at least one Polka played...

 

That's funny. I'm marrying a lovely girl in June from St. Clairsville, OH (Near Wheeling) and the wedding is going to have a cookie table (something i've never heard of) and we are having a Polka Band from Pittsburgh along with a DJ.

 

My mom grew up right outside of St. Clairsville, so I am very familiar with the area.  I think this part of Ohio has the nicest people in the entire country...everyone is so warm and friendly there, and I love going back when I can.  Where is the reception going to be? I've been to receptions at several of the Eagles lodges around, as well as a few at Oglebay (Wheeling).

To the question of why Ohio raises so many migrants . . . I think that the shift in cosmopolitanism after WWII really hurt Ohio and its culture. Once upon a time, making the leap to Cincy or Cleveland meant you were part of a cosmopolitan culture. It gave you a facsimile of Chicago or Detroit (pre-collapse) or even NYC. After WWII, the second tier cities lost their cultural claim to cosmopolitanism and the increasingly unmoored nature of American life meant that joining the elite meant getting into a big east coast college (or maybe Chicago) and staying there.

 

A certain kind of fetishization of the 'big' city life also hurt. 

To the question of why Ohio raises so many migrants . . . I think that the shift in cosmopolitanism after WWII really hurt Ohio and its culture. Once upon a time, making the leap to Cincy or Cleveland meant you were part of a cosmopolitan culture. It gave you a facsimile of Chicago or Detroit (pre-collapse) or even NYC. After WWII, the second tier cities lost their cultural claim to cosmopolitanism and the increasingly unmoored nature of American life meant that joining the elite meant getting into a big east coast college (or maybe Chicago) and staying there.

 

A certain kind of fetishization of the 'big' city life also hurt.

 

QFT

The only thing more dangerous to Ohio's reputation than an Ohioan is an ex-Ohioan.

 

From my experience in Chicago, the the biggest population of ex-Ohioans and worst offenders are from Southern Ohio.  I think that Chicago gets a lot more Ohio transplants from Dayton/Cincy, because everytime I hear someone bitching about Ohio....they say they would never go back because it's so damn conservative.  I ask them where they are from and it's always Cincy or Dayton.  I ALWAYS rep Cleveland in a  good way and tell those people that my experience was the exact opposite.  Living in Cleveland allowed me to experience a lot of big city things like the rapid, museums, thriving cutting edge nightlife/music scene, theatre....and I had more Jewish and black friends than I do now, and I never felt oppressed or hit over the head with religion.  It prepared me well for living in a bigger city.  I rarely meet any Northern Ohio transplants that hold such disdain for Ohio...they usually feel somewhat the same as me and like talking about things we might have had in common...like clubs, restaurants, etc.  Although, I think NE Ohio definitely sends more transplants east than west because I rarely even meet anyone from Northern Ohio....not even Toledo. 

 

Oh, and btw, I also tell them about the good things I experienced traveling in Dayton and Cincinnati...and I am surprised they feel that way.  How Cincy is has such beautiful architecture and such...they usually agree, but then revert back to the overly religious and conservative culture as the reason for the hate and bashing.  I have never lived in Southern Ohio, so I can't disagree with them because I just don't know.  Most of them also say the farthest North they ever ventured in Ohio was Columbus....never been to Cleveland, Akron or Toledo.

 

Anyway, that is just my experience with ex-Ohioans.

For what it's worth, when I was George Washington Univeristy there was actually a sizable contingent from the Akron and Cleveland areas, and they all complained about it and how they never wanted to go back.  When I found other Cincinnati people though, we all talked about how we missed certain things and how it was nice to go back on breaks, etc.  My sister lives in Chicago, and I have lived in DC and now Los Angeles, and I think Cincinnati has prepared me fine for the bigger cities.  I don't like how Cleveland sometimes acts like it is somehow the "big city" and Cincinnati is just some small, provincial town.  Other than the Rapid, Cincinnati and Cleveland have many of the same urban amenities.

 

I do agree with your point about people from Cincy never visiting Cleveland or Lake Erie, and from the people I had met from NE Ohio, very few of them had ever ventured down to Cincy, where as just about everyone has been to Columbus.

I agree, so many kids in this state look to move to elsewhere. I've had friends tell me I'm foolish for staying here. After I thought about it, I realized most of the these kids left the state for college, came back home for breaks, and didn't come home for the summer. When they came home for breaks, they would sit in the house for a week or two, and then go back to school and complain how bored they were. I found most of the people who complained about Ohio had no clue what was going on in their home city. In college, I met a girl from the eastern suburbs of Cleveland who didn't know Cleveland had light rail. Here's the funny thing, every word out her mouth was how lame Ohio was, and how she was moving to New York.

This an interesting direction that this discussion has taken. When I start thinking about why I have stayed in Ohio and never left, the two things that come up are family and I never have an out of state career opportunity come up that would out weigh the cost of living/family as child care. I have moved a lot around Ohio but have never left the state, unless you count my first year of college in Flint, MI (Don't ask). My circumstance were such though that I really never had that post college soul searching that leads many people to leave the state so I just took what I had and ran with it. Now that I am pretty established it is hard to fathom a move in the higher price areas on the coast. You mean I will make 5% more and my house would be twice as much there? No thanks.

I agree, so many kids in this state look to move to elsewhere. I've had friends tell me I'm foolish for staying here. After I thought about it, I realized most of the these kids left the state for college, came back home for breaks, and didn't come home for the summer. When they came home for breaks, they would sit in the house for a week or two, and then go back to school and complain how bored they were. I found most of the people who complained about Ohio had no clue what was going on in their home city. ...

I always resented the implications that this state was not worth consideration and the only place to live was "the Sun Belt".  Ohio is a state of great natural beauty and there is a lot to do here or near here.  Stupid corporate managers bought the poison and let chambers of commerce from southern states steal and relocate the corporations that they ran.

 

The language involved a lot of whining about the cold and union-bashing, IMHO.

The only thing more dangerous to Ohio's reputation than an Ohioan is an ex-Ohioan.

 

From my experience in Chicago, the the biggest population of ex-Ohioans and worst offenders are from Southern Ohio. I think that Chicago gets a lot more Ohio transplants from Dayton/Cincy, because everytime I hear someone bitching about Ohio....they say they would never go back because it's so damn conservative. I ask them where they are from and it's always Cincy or Dayton. I ALWAYS rep Cleveland in a good way and tell those people that my experience was the exact opposite. Living in Cleveland allowed me to experience a lot of big city things like the rapid, museums, thriving cutting edge nightlife/music scene, theatre....and I had more Jewish and black friends than I do now, and I never felt oppressed or hit over the head with religion. It prepared me well for living in a bigger city. I rarely meet any Northern Ohio transplants that hold such disdain for Ohio...they usually feel somewhat the same as me and like talking about things we might have had in common...like clubs, restaurants, etc. Although, I think NE Ohio definitely sends more transplants east than west because I rarely even meet anyone from Northern Ohio....not even Toledo.

 

Oh, and btw, I also tell them about the good things I experienced traveling in Dayton and Cincinnati...and I am surprised they feel that way. How Cincy is has such beautiful architecture and such...they usually agree, but then revert back to the overly religious and conservative culture as the reason for the hate and bashing. I have never lived in Southern Ohio, so I can't disagree with them because I just don't know. Most of them also say the farthest North they ever ventured in Ohio was Columbus....never been to Cleveland, Akron or Toledo.

 

Anyway, that is just my experience with ex-Ohioans.

 

And...

 

For what it's worth, when I was George Washington Univeristy there was actually a sizable contingent from the Akron and Cleveland areas, and they all complained about it and how they never wanted to go back. When I found other Cincinnati people though, we all talked about how we missed certain things and how it was nice to go back on breaks, etc. My sister lives in Chicago, and I have lived in DC and now Los Angeles, and I think Cincinnati has prepared me fine for the bigger cities. I don't like how Cleveland sometimes acts like it is somehow the "big city" and Cincinnati is just some small, provincial town. Other than the Rapid, Cincinnati and Cleveland have many of the same urban amenities.

 

I do agree with your point about people from Cincy never visiting Cleveland or Lake Erie, and from the people I had met from NE Ohio, very few of them had ever ventured down to Cincy, where as just about everyone has been to Columbus.

 

Are the very reason why we'll likely never have a state identity.  Local perspectives are too strong in this state in order for a wholesome identity.

The only thing more dangerous to Ohio's reputation than an Ohioan is an ex-Ohioan.

I rarely meet any Northern Ohio transplants that hold such disdain for Ohio...

That's because they are all in S. Fla. b!thing about it!

 

 

mmm, cookies. 

 

I wonder what other local wedding traditions actually came from somewhere else. For example, I've never seen anyone do the "chicken dance" except at Cleveland area weddings.  And then there's the controversial "dollar dance," which I believe has a basis in Italian culture if not other areas of Europe.

For those whose reality-based posts were deleted, I apologize but apparently some people have a hard time reading "back on topic":

 

It's a major cultural touchstone for Ohio, that we're thought of as being so "nice."  Some of it is a larger midwest attitude of quick yet distant kindness, as opposed to the deeper and slower "come sit a spell" southern version.  But some of it I think is economic and demographic change taking effect.  Not only have we suffered a brain drain, we've also had an aggresiveness drain.  Antsy people with an itch to make a big impact move away in far greater numbers than those seeking quiet stability to sit home and watch the rain.  We're quickly becoming the nation's Eeyore. 

I actually don't think Ohio is alone in this problem, but rather the large middle class in the state is highly susceptible to the lures of the biggest cities. Oddly enough, I think the best high schools in the state do more harm than good on this, because they are fully invested in sending their students to the best universities and sell a culture of international cosmopolitanism which undermines the best and brightest's commitment to the local community - and some of them do 'service' projects within their same cities that doesn't sound much different from what they do in eastern KY or Peru or what have you.

 

By and by, I'm referring to the big Jesuit schools around the state . . . and to a lesser extent the premier public schools like Walnut Hills in Cincinnati (obviously they don't do mission work at the 'Nut).

mmm, cookies. 

 

I wonder what other local wedding traditions actually came from somewhere else. For example, I've never seen anyone do the "chicken dance" except at Cleveland area weddings.  And then there's the controversial "dollar dance," which I believe has a basis in Italian culture if not other areas of Europe.

 

Every wedding i've been to in the Youngstown/Warren area has had the Chicken dance and at least one polka. Most weddings around here also include the "dollar dance". I've been to some where they serve shots while you are waiting in line, but most do not.

I consider Y-town Cleveland "area."  It would be hard for me to define a geographical area that's where Cleveland ends.  I guess around ashland county going S, not sure in the other directions.

Youngstown/Warren is a split between Cleveland and Pittsburgh - the further northwest of Ytown/Warren you go, the more influence there is of Cleveland; conversely the further southeast you go, there's more Pittsburgh influence.

If I ever get married, my wedding reception will be a chicken dance marathon.

Youngstown/Warren is a split between Cleveland and Pittsburgh - the further northwest of Ytown/Warren you go, the more influence there is of Cleveland; conversely the further southeast you go, there's more Pittsburgh influence.

 

This is very true. I live north of Youngstown and although i do feel ties to Pittsburgh i spend more time and identify more with the city of Cleveland and it's suburbs. Shoot........you might as well include us in Greater Cleveland...........most of us work up there!

I actually don't think Ohio is alone in this problem, but rather the large middle class in the state is highly susceptible to the lures of the biggest cities. Oddly enough, I think the best high schools in the state do more harm than good on this, because they are fully invested in sending their students to the best universities and sell a culture of international cosmopolitanism which undermines the best and brightest's commitment to the local community - and some of them do 'service' projects within their same cities that doesn't sound much different from what they do in eastern KY or Peru or what have you.

 

By and by, I'm referring to the big Jesuit schools around the state . . . and to a lesser extent the premier public schools like Walnut Hills in Cincinnati (obviously they don't do mission work at the 'Nut).

 

I think you are right on, particularly in the selling of 'cosmopolitanism'. But I also get the sense that (northern) Ohio culture is very much contiguous with 'generic American' culture in foodways, religion, dialect, clothing, music, etc. Perhaps Ohioans leave Ohio because they are 'seeking' culture, and because they are so well schooled in the dominant US culture that it feels easy to move other places?

Hell, the state practically invented "American culture" (electricity, planes, [Tiffin] dialect, blah blah).

mmm, cookies.

 

I wonder what other local wedding traditions actually came from somewhere else. For example, I've never seen anyone do the "chicken dance" except at Cleveland area weddings. And then there's the controversial "dollar dance," which I believe has a basis in Italian culture if not other areas of Europe.

 

Every wedding i've been to in the Youngstown/Warren area has had the Chicken dance and at least one polka. Most weddings around here also include the "dollar dance". I've been to some where they serve shots while you are waiting in line, but most do not.

 

The dollar dance! All the weddings I remember from Eastern Ohio had the dollar dance, and they all gave shots too, even to the kids!

I actually don't think Ohio is alone in this problem, but rather the large middle class in the state is highly susceptible to the lures of the biggest cities. Oddly enough, I think the best high schools in the state do more harm than good on this, because they are fully invested in sending their students to the best universities and sell a culture of international cosmopolitanism which undermines the best and brightest's commitment to the local community - and some of them do 'service' projects within their same cities that doesn't sound much different from what they do in eastern KY or Peru or what have you.

 

By and by, I'm referring to the big Jesuit schools around the state . . . and to a lesser extent the premier public schools like Walnut Hills in Cincinnati (obviously they don't do mission work at the 'Nut).

 

I think you are right on, particularly in the selling of 'cosmopolitanism'. But I also get the sense that (northern) Ohio culture is very much contiguous with 'generic American' culture in foodways, religion, dialect, clothing, music, etc. Perhaps Ohioans leave Ohio because they are 'seeking' culture, and because they are so well schooled in the dominant US culture that it feels easy to move other places?

 

Yes but:  this thread is 8 pages long, and it keeps going.  A lot of the stuff described here, and in picture threads of individual towns, doesn't happen everywhere else.  Some of it does, and people have identified those things when they come up.  There's a lot of commonality between Ohio and other midwestern states.  But outside of that things are different and we're no better prepared than anyone. 

 

I used to have a job where I worked with people all over the country, on a daily basis, all through the phone.  Never saw any of them.  I had to exert authority over them and it was a completely different game in each region.  Of particular note were the Canadians (it's not that they don't like you, it's that you have no meaning to them... everyone's autonomous) and the southerners (very formal and deferential, but more talky).  The most ruthless were the east coast people, who seemingly despise all authority and each other. 

 

Midwesterners were the easiest to work with.  Cantankerous, even grim, but ultimately willing.     

Perhaps, Ohio has distinct culture but it is not unique. The other problem is that 'general' American culture has destroyed most of the significant localism that once dominated the national culture. A lot of the distinctness is more that of memory than how we currently live our lives and as the years pass the memory of that distinctiveness disappears and is replaced by a vague parochialism or a overwhelming cosmopolitanism.

 

Perhaps, reduced mobility caused by the economic situation could foster the creation of a more localized and unique culture (though the Internet might mitigate that potential).

I'll be honest, I haven't read through this entire thread, but I DO think that Cincinnati has a culture.  I always sort of looked at it as being like Toronto with a dash of Austin, TX.

I'll be honest, I haven't read through this entire thread, but I DO think that Cincinnati has a culture.  I always sort of looked at it as being like Toronto with a dash of Austin, TX.

 

Toronto??  :wtf:  It's more like.....  You know...let me stop now.  :wink2:

^I can't go back and read the whole thread over again.  But here are my generalizations:

 

Northern and NEO should be a separate state.  The rest of OH seems overwhelmingly country.  Yes, Columbus is a big city, but this is only a recent developoment.  It does not seem to have the culture of a Cleveland.  Cleveland has more Eastern Europeans than about anywhere, Italians, Jews, tons of Irish, and basically any other ethnicity one can think of (The Cultural Gardens can attest to this).

 

Cincinnati, IMO, is the northern most Southern state in the Union.  They speak with a twang.  NEO speaks similar to Chicago (I think it's called the upper midland dialect).

 

While I generally do not like Pat Forde of ESPN, he wrote a great piece on Cincy once.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2848689

^I can't go back and read the whole thread over again.  But here are my generalizations:

 

Northern and NEO should be a separate state.  The rest of OH seems overwhelmingly country.  Yes, Columbus is a big city, but this is only a recent developoment.  It does not seem to have the culture of a Cleveland.  Cleveland has more Eastern Europeans than about anywhere, Italians, Jews, tons of Irish, and basically any other ethnicity one can think of (The Cultural Gardens can attest to this).

 

Cincinnati, IMO, is the northern most Southern state in the Union.  They speak with a twang.  NEO speaks similar to Chicago (I think it's called the upper midland dialect).

 

While I generally do not like Pat Forde of ESPN, he wrote a great piece on Cincy once.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2848689

 

Agreed!

And I mean absolutely no disrespect in saying that.  I am sure many of you are way more urban-Ohioan than I. 

Cincinnati, IMO, is the northern most Southern state in the Union. They speak with a twang.

 

Correction: Cincy doesn't speak with a tang, KY does. And we were a city filled with Nordeasterners before the Cleve was even out of the womb. Actually, geographically speaking from North to South, It would be Cleveland, NYC, Cincinnati. NYC will probably be somewhere around where Lima is using 75 (N/S) as a reference - so about a 100 miles south of NYC ... so what was that again? ;)

People south of Columbus generally have a more southern-type accent. You may not have a twang, but i'm sure you don't sound like me. Also, not all of northern Ohio has the Great Lakes accent. I hear it mostly in Cleveland, some parts of Akron/Canton and a little in Toledo. I've never heard anyone in the Youngstown area w/the Great Lakes accent, but i have heard the western Pa accent here (mostly south of Youngstown). You know, "worsh", kellar (color), tager (tiger), etc.

^I can't go back and read the whole thread over again. But here are my generalizations:

 

Northern and NEO should be a separate state. The rest of OH seems overwhelmingly country. Yes, Columbus is a big city, but this is only a recent developoment. It does not seem to have the culture of a Cleveland. Cleveland has more Eastern Europeans than about anywhere, Italians, Jews, tons of Irish, and basically any other ethnicity one can think of (The Cultural Gardens can attest to this).

 

Cincinnati, IMO, is the northern most Southern state in the Union. They speak with a twang. NEO speaks similar to Chicago (I think it's called the upper midland dialect).

 

While I generally do not like Pat Forde of ESPN, he wrote a great piece on Cincy once.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2848689

 

To say that Cincinnati is "overwhelmingly country" is purely ignorant. I challenge you to come down to Cincy and stand in the middle of OTR and say it is country.  And it's laughable that Clevelanders think that North East Ohio is somehow some urban paradise...isn't Amish Country in NEO? I'm just not sure how it came to be that Clevelanders claim superiority in urbanity over the rest of the state...all this "welcome to the big city" shit that you see in different threads is positively nauseating.

^I can't go back and read the whole thread over again.  But here are my generalizations:

 

Northern and NEO should be a separate state.  The rest of OH seems overwhelmingly country.  Yes, Columbus is a big city, but this is only a recent developoment.  It does not seem to have the culture of a Cleveland.  Cleveland has more Eastern Europeans than about anywhere, Italians, Jews, tons of Irish, and basically any other ethnicity one can think of (The Cultural Gardens can attest to this).

 

Cincinnati, IMO, is the northern most Southern state in the Union.  They speak with a twang.  NEO speaks similar to Chicago (I think it's called the upper midland dialect).

 

While I generally do not like Pat Forde of ESPN, he wrote a great piece on Cincy once.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2848689

 

To say that Cincinnati is "overwhelmingly country" is purely ignorant. I challenge you to come down to Cincy and stand in the middle of OTR and say it is country.  And it's laughable that Clevelanders think that North East Ohio is somehow some urban paradise...isn't Amish Country in NEO? I'm just not sure how it came to be that Clevelanders claim superiority in urbanity over the rest of the state...all this "welcome to the big city" sh!t that you see in different threads is positively nauseating.

 

edale- Stop being a betch and just admit to yourself that the Cleve is awesome. Seriously though, palijandro points out in the beginning of his post that he was making generalizations about Ohio. I have friends that are from Cincinnati and they tend to have a 'typical' southern accent (just like some Clevelanders have the NEO accent). I would also like to point out that his generalizations about the rest of Ohio tend to be true (the one saying that the rest of Ohio is pretty country). I took that statement as meaning the rest of non-urban Ohio (you know, places outside of the 3-C's and other metro areas); in other words, rural Ohio. Again, he was making generalizations and didn't go into an in depth examination of the different cultures that make up Ohio and her cities.

 

Also, I know it is random but I was wondering if shredded chicken was an Ohio/Midwest thing? My step mom is from Oklahoma and she had never heard of shredded chicken and she said that they don't even sell the canned shredded chicken stuff in Oklahoma. It just amazes me because shredded chicken is the shiznit.

I seen a shredded chicken jist t'other day, layin' in the road. Weren't a purty sight! :-(

One of these days Im going to have to do a profusley illustrated and diagrammed (and probably utterly boring and pendantic) thread on how the Western Reserve landscape differs from SW Ohio.